Illegal sand, stone smugglers warned

Imphal: Eight Tata trucks each carrying 550 cft of Dimapur sand and two trucks with river stones of 5cum each sourced from illegal quarry sites of Imphal Iril Protected Forests were booked during routine checking of vehicles travelling on NH-02 by Kangpokpi Forest Division staff on Monday.

Vide Sec 2 (4)(iv) read with section 69 of IFA,1927, the minerals carried were presumed to be forests produce. As mandated by rule 37 (5) of MFR,2021, the driver should be in possession of Certificate of Origin issued by concerned DFO in prescribed format and other relevant documents for transportation of such forest produces, which they were unable to produce .

The range forest officer seized and confiscated the forest produces, vehicles and tools used in committing the offence and Preliminary Offence Reports filed under relevant sections of the law.

The sand and stones so confiscated were released after payment of the requisite fee of Rs 15000 for the sand and Rs 5000 for the stones per vehicle.

The range forest officers have instructed to the first time offenders to pay the required fees at concerned forest revenue stations to avoid such incidences. Repeated offenders will not be let off but will be dealt with sternly as per the law, the DFO said.